Be Excellent To Each Other

IN.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Hunter-Vict ... 402&sr=8-2

Successfully yoinked. I might buy a proper version when it is cheap on kindle. I would have payed the full kindle price today if they had let me, ah well.

Aye, that's the one. He used to write fantasy novels until someone pointed out that thrillers sold better

My mate Dave gets an acknowledgement in the print version, but not the Kindle one.

Yup did exactly the same myself, why do they not release the digital copy at the same time as the paper, they are just asking for people to pirate.

Also just finished the 3rd book in the Demon Cycle pentalogy, Peter V. Brett is one of my favourite authors at the moment

Interestingly, Amazon have recently made their kindle service even more attractive to pirates. Whereas before you had to transfer a personal document to each device you wanted it on, one at a time. Now any document you send to any device is stored in the amazon cloud, and can be downloaded via amazon to any device you have registered.

Also interestingly, I have 11 kindle devices on my account! 2 actual kindles, and 9 other devices that I can use to read my books on. That's pretty impressive, i'm never very far from my book collection these days. The future is here people.

About to finish "The Brothers Karamazov". Still not sure if its as good as Crime and Punishment, but it's still one of literature greatest achievements.

Just finished 'I am Legend' by Richard Matheson. Absolutely superb story, and a hundred times better than the film.
Part of the Gollancz box set which is shaping up very nicely.

I read these a few year ago, I think 7 was out when I read them. I found them again a week or 2 ago, and have started re-reading them. I had completely forgotten about them, and how much I had loved them. Jordan was a brilliant writer, it is such a shame that he died. I have yet to read any of Sandersons books, but from what I've heard they are better, so I'm really looking forward to getting to them.

Mental note: Update signature, (I'm on book 5)

Cookie I agree entirely that Jordan was a brilliant writer and the sheer scale and scope of his vision for the Wheel of Time is just breathtaking, however his does seem to struggle a little with his middle books imo, it becomes very formulaic, since Sanderson taking over the story (sadly after Jordans death) new life seems to have been breathed into the story, I guess a fresh view will do that

If you haven't read any of Sandersons work yet can I suggest Warbreaker as one of the best stand alond fantasy novels I have read in a long long time, also his Mistborn Trilogy is rather excellent.

I read the first three or four Wheel of Time books and they were so very generic even I gave up.

Well it is the generic book thread.

I think that depends on what else you have read before I did the same with Lord of the Rings, got halfway through the first book and gave up as I had read it a million times before, but better done and better written. Due to reading it when I was in my early twenties, after reading every other fantasy novel throughout my teens...

The thing is, several of the middle WoT books are actually identical to each other. Jordan wrote the exact same book several times.

Like Terry Goodkind.

Yup. Though Jordan isn't quite so rape-obsessed.

After A Song Of Ice And Fire, I've struggled to read fantasy books. They all seem a bit thin and light on detail by comparison.

The thing I most remember about Goodkind's books was him describing the murder of the "village idiot" during a post-siege pillaging session. I recall him saying they were holding him down and smacking his head with the flat end of an axe until his skull cracked open with the sound of a coconut cracking, spilling his brains into the gutter. Mm. Thanks Goodkind. Thadkind.

Then I strongly recommend Stephen Eriksson's Malazan Book of the Fallen. The best series I've ever read, hands down. How the guy kept track of all the plots and characters he weaves together is completely beyond me.

*notes down* If I ever manage to break the Black Library cycle, I'll read em. I know you're already a Robin Hobb reader, but if anyone else wants a good series her Farseer Trilogy is excellent. I have to be really careful with her books as she's broken my heart at least twice already.

The thing about the Fire and ice series is that it is incredibly lazy writing. "oh", he thinks "they will sword fight" and then it is all "...and the dance of steel began, each performer tracing his deadly steps". EVERY SINGLE SWORD FIGHT What does Tyrion do in the morning? "He broke his fast with some stale bread, and drained his bladder". Rob? "He broke his fast with some bread, and drained his bladder". Reek? "He broke his fast with some stale bread, and drained his bladder". The Dolthraki? "They broke their fast with some dried goat, and drained their bladders". jon? "He broke his fast with some stale bread, and drained his bladder" EVERY SINGLE PERSON does it.

After the first two and a half books, they became embaressingly shit.

I have two left to read.

The wanted man and Running Blind/the visitor

But everyone *does* breakfast and drainage their bladder.It's commentary on the mundane existence of fantasy characters.

Or something

I bought the first one the last time you recommended it. But never got around to starting it.

I'm started that book by DavPaz's mate. Like, the first two pages. It's okay so far

Has Richard Morgan churned out anything new?

/checks

Bah, nothing since the sequel to The Steel Remains (linky).

Ooh, but the third book in the Painted Man trilogy came out last month - clicky click - brilliant books if people haven't read them.

WTF? How am I so far out of the loop for all this!

<off to amazon>

And available on Kindle, well done publishers!

If you like dystopian action science fiction then you should read 'The Electric Church' by Jeff Somers.

It's good, but the sequels are better.

It'd be nice to read a sci-fi novel that wasn't set in a dystopia, to be honest.

Heh. Point taken, but given that it's arguable that we already live in one, it can be quite difficult to do!

"Let us do science for the good of humanity!"
"Yes."
*furious science happens, bubbling tubes, frowns into microscope and all that shit*
"Our science is successful. The world is slightly better."
"Yes."

The End.

The closest I can think of is proabbly the Culture, but maybe Starship Troopers world. I think that things have to be tough, otherwise the hero cannot triumph.

i mentioned it in a post the other day



But then I called it by its correct name

Starship Troopers is one of the most obvious dystopian works there is!

Though, of course, the definition depends entirely on your own political and/or moral belief system, and it is arguable that any world that is not a utopia could be classified as a dystopia.

Ho hum.

Admittedly it has been a while since I read it, but is it not an example of a facist society that functions? Not a utopia, for sure, but "close to2 along the lines of a functinoaing society without unrest and poverty. Apart from the war, natch.

I'd argue Dune. Just the first one. Most planetary states seem to function quite well, the feuds between them being the source of conflict. Harkonnen's obviously being evil and all that to their subjects, but the rest being "quite nice". Apart from the Bene Tleilax and their flesh wombs and stuff. Then you get into Paul's Arrakis and it all goes to shit. Even more so with Leto II, the golden path getting more hellish the further you go.

Isn't the system in Dune a mediaeval heirachy, though, with teh Freeman being stomped on by the Haakonens?

What about harry harrison's cooelction of planets that the Stainelss Steel Rat steals from he frequently says that he only gets away with it as nobody else does it, or somesuch, so that idicates some elvels of satisfaction.

Basically, aye. Like I said, outside of the Harkonnen and Bene Tleilax everyone seems quite okay. Caladan in particular is an fishing and looking at waves idyll.

it has been about 17 years since I read it, I think. I was doing some idle searching on this and ended up here, which you might find interesting.

That'll be why I didn't spot it

The next Discworld novel might be a Moist Von Lipwig one going by pterry's twitterings. Or it might not. I can't tell. I'm just so full of help today.

Many of Philip K Dick's novels aren't set in dystopias.

Disagree. The film is very different to the book, and it's important think about them differently. The film is definitely a fascist society. In the book, however, it's less clear.

I'm doing this from memory and can't remember who I lent my copy to so no text references but the main thing about the society in the book is that in order to be able to vote, someone has to have undergone either military service or something akin to military service. Essentially, the vote is something that has to be earnt. Other than this, the suggestion in the text is that the society is pretty racially harmonious, well integrated, and the vast majority of the population are happy without the vote, live long, free, and happy lives without participating in elections, and generally despise the military. There's also a sense that the military themselves don't know what to do with all those people who wish to serve, and as they are not allowed to reject anyone who steps forward they struggle to find uses for them. I'd argue that the book is a discourse on civic duties and whether full citizenship is a right or a privilege, rather than an outline for a militaristic or fascist society. Sounds more Roman than anything, where one could be a happy and free but not a full citizen as they'd not served (at least in the early days).

There are some other bits that discuss the differences between military and civic life, and the duties and responsibilities of officers and NCOs etc towards their men. In the book, for example, it is apparent that the officer goes to great lengths to prevent a recruit from being flogged, and his anger is directed at the sergeant for not stopping the situation occur in the first place.

What you described sounds pretty horrible to me. A brainwashed miasma of proles living as an underclass to the brave military who know what to do with them and who have the vote.

*shrugs*

A miasma of proles. I like that.

Oh, it's certainly not a system I'd be happy with. But in the text, the suggestion is that the settlement is accepted and those who haven't served do not consider themselves an underclass. The only right they lack is the franchise. There's also the implication that the bar to gaining the vote is very high, and many drop out (with little social stigma for having done so).
Could been seen as a self-perpetuating oligarchy, sure, but there's no indication in the text of any oppression between the enfranchised and those who aren't. Arguably, it's a more equitable limitation of the franchise than basing it on a property qualification as used to be the case until WW1.

Course, the main point is that I don't think the book is as dystopian as people think, but a lot depends on how people interpret the evidence given in the novel.

Currently reading: 'Hyperion' by Dan Simmons. Current thoughts: bloody good!

Have you got all 3? or just the first, it is bloody brilliant from start to finish.

I enjoyed the book, it was quite a few years ago, so I can't remember too many details..

A third of the way through now and it's a bit... Dry.

And, although it seems to pride itself on the technical knowledge of guns and stuff (especially its spelling of Five-seveN) it makes some blundering errors about how you'd actually use them (look out for Our Hero keeping several handguns around his house that have had full magazines for years, meaning they almost certainly wouldn't work, and getting shot by an armour-piercing bullet that was slowed down enough by toughened glass to knock him out but not break the skin ).

Still, I'm plodding through.

All four surely? They are a brilliant series of books no doubt.

good point, I have it in a Omnibus and made the assumption that it was a trilogy

Have also just finished A Memory of Light, the last in the Wheel of Time Series, finally have closure on that epic saga, very well brought together, superb end. Better due to Sanderson bringing a nice new writing style to the series after Jordan passing on.